December 6, 2005
FOR WASHINGTON?:
Berlin's Silence for Washington: Gerhard Schröder's government had detailed information on how the CIA operated in Europe -- and said nothing. The lower echelons of the administration even co-operated actively. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is likely to expect the same silent complicity from the new chancellor, Angela Merkel. (Matthias Gebauer, 12/05/05, Der Spiegel)
Schröder's time is over now. But questions about Germany's involvement in the methods of CIA agents operating in Europe are catching up with him as well as with the other political pensioners -- former foreign minister Joschka Fischer and especially former interior minister Otto Schily. Research by the Washington Post, SPIEGEL and other media show that neither the previous government nor the new administration under Angela Merkel should have been surprised about the reports in recent weeks about secret prisoner transports, secret prisons and CIA kidnappings.It is also becoming ever clearer that the Schröder government was informed in detail and at an early stage about the policy of so-called "extraordinary renditions" and "black sites" across Europe. Cabinet ministers in Berlin clearly didn't just know the dirty details about Bush's unrestricted war on terror by reading the newspapers.
In some cases German intelligence officers even tried to profit from the controversial methods by questioning prisoners who were being held without any legal foundation. Schröder's stance on Iraq was popular and won him votes. But behind its anti-American veil, his government was quietly complicit and was occasionally rewarded for its silence.
The silence isn't a favor to Washington, it's a necessity of their own cravenness. Someone's got to fight terror and if it isn't going to be them it's got to be us. It's not as if Europeans aren't accustomed to having us win their wars for them.
MORE:
"Everyone Knew What Was Going On in Bondsteel": As European governments investigate reports about apparent CIA "black sites" maintained by the United States to hold suspected terrorists, Camp Bondsteel has come under great scrutiny. Prisoners were locked up for months in the Kosovo military camp without trial in conditions similar to those at Guantanamo. Alvaro Gil Robles, Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe, tells SPIEGEL ONLINE what he saw at the camp in 2002 and reveals that Germany knew all about it. (Der Spiegel, 12/05/05)
Berlin (AP) reports US admits botched detention, Merkel says.
Posted by: erp at December 6, 2005 9:50 AMThey never gave a crap out Kosovo before, why now?
Posted by: Sandy P at December 6, 2005 11:23 AMThe odd thing about the secret jail stories, in terms of their recent tone, is the folks most concerned about this are expecting the Germans and French to join them in being really, really outraged about the situation, as if they knew absolutely nothing about it and are as pure as the driven snow in representing the higher moral standards of the European Union and the Americans who admire the EU (they also seem to be expecting the EU people to be really outraged at the nations that hosted those secret prisons as well. Good luck on that, guys, unless you want all of Europe's dirty laundry aired in public).
Posted by: John at December 6, 2005 2:16 PM